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centerbottomRobert Aquilone | Children and Violence | November 19, 2015 950000Robert Aquilone | Children and Violence | November 19, 2015 center750007132320Bullying 950000Bullying centertop00 After watching the video Bullying: What Every Adult Needs to Know. I was surprised to find that bullies often are seeking attention. All of the information on why children bully was a bit surprising, to find that bullies are often even more messed up than the people they are bullying. As a parent and having children that were bullied I always thought that the school system would not do much to help the situation. I always told them to have a thick skin and ignore them and eventually they would just get tired of it. By doing this I was just telling them that it was something that they would have to deal with and to just suffer through it in silence. The thought that the bullying is something that is a continuous thing that goes on and on never really stopping only ebbing and flowing. Looking at the fact that bullying can be a cycle of violence that continues on in the child into adulthood and most of the time limits the social function of that person, as you think of it as they are in need of attention and the action of bullying will only make them more of a loner. The whole idea to stop this cycle by teaching the bully what it is like to be bullied and to give them an outlet for them to get attention in a positive way and turn their way of thinking around (“Bullying: What Every Adult Needs to Know”, 2003) . One of the ways that the video spoke about intervention was to have role playing to show to the bully what their actions were like and how it affected others. Many times as children we are only concerned with how life and others affect us, not on how we are affecting others around us. Children are often not aware of how their facial expressions and tone of voice change what they say and what they do. Another intervention that was used in the video was to have a Mix it up day. Where the kids were asked to sit with other students than they would normally sit with to promote changing social boundaries. This would hopefully change the misconceptions they had about others. Both of these interventions seemed to be helpful as education is one of the best defense against bullying. The use of education about bullying can help to defuse the power struggle, the more you know about the effects it has on others can help to eliminate bullying. The only way to really fight bullying is to bring it to the forefront and into the light of conversation. One of the ways we can start to bring the subject out into the open is to use a poster program that addresses the issue. There are many posters out there to use already in production and available for schools from the Department of Health and Human Services. “The research-based training gives teachers practical steps to take to respond to bullying. These skills include how to deescalate a situation, find out what happened, and support all of the students involved. The training also shows the importance of building strong relationships in the classroom, as well as creating an environment respectful of diversity, in order to prevent bullying” (Temkin, 2012). Having a bullying awareness program will bring light to the types of behaviors to look for and how to react to them. Addressing bullying with an open dialog we can begin to address the issue and resolve the issues that are causing it. “The American Psychological Association suggests 10 ways parents and teachers can cultivate resilience in children: Encourage children to form relationships and empathy Empower children by encouraging them to help others Keep a routine Teach children to take a break from worry Emphasize self-care and be a good role model for caring for oneself Teach children how to set goals and take steps to achieve them Help children to see positives about themselves such as problem-solving skills, decision-making, and use of humor Teach children to keep things in perspective Help children to see the lessons in hardship Point out the positive aspects of change” (Argosy University, 2015) The victim’s resiliency it is the biggest way that we can help our children become stronger and equip them emotionally to withstand the emotional trauma that comes with bullying. This can start at home by making sure that the children feel accepted for who they are no matter what. Beginning with this strong foundation at home will better equip them against all kinds of emotional trauma and be able to face those head on (Firestone, 2011) If we can begin to raise the self-esteem victims of bullying, then we can start to build them up so the bully has no power over them. Teaching them not to accept others negative judgements of them gives them the power over their own self-image rather than accepting others views of them ("Building Resiliency - Stop Bullying Now," n.d.). Having the victim realize that they have power in their own right and they can control over their situation will empower them. “Building resilience means strengthening one's ability to effectively cope, adjust, or recover from stress or adversity” (Firestone, 2011). As a community the institution of conflict resolution, self-esteem building, and role playing could be some ways to help the victims become more self-resilient. We cannot ignore the fact that the bully might need more help than the victims of that bully. The self-esteem and other psychological problems that they might be having could be the cause of the bullying. As with the victims we need to be built up the bully’s self-esteem and need to help them find themselves and what they excel at to help them navigate the treacherous waters of life. Bullies are at risk of having other contributing factors in their life that might need counselors to be hyper vigilant to not let those potentially harmful situations go unnoticed. References Argosy University. (2015). online classrom. Retrieved from http://myeclassonline.com Building Resiliency - Stop Bullying Now. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://stopbullyingnow.com/building-resiliency/ Bullying: What Every Adult Needs to Know [Video file]. (2003). Aquarius Health Care Media. Retrieved November 19, 2015, from Academic Video Online: Premium. Firestone, L. (2011, December 6). How to Bully-Proof Your Children by Building Their Resilience | Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/compassion-matters/201112/how-bully-proof-your-children-building-their-resilience Temkin, D. (2012). Giving Teachers Tools to Stop Bullying: Free Training Toolkit Now Available | ED.gov Blog [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blog.ed.gov/2012/10/giving-teachers-tools-to-stop-bullying-free-training-toolkit-now-available/